Supreme Court of Ohio

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The Supreme Court of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, each serving six-year terms. Since 2004, the court has met in the Ohio Judicial Center (formerly known as the Ohio Departments Building) on the east bank of the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. Prior to 2004, the court met in the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower and earlier in the Judiciary Annex (now the Senate Building) of the Ohio Statehouse.

All the seats on the court are elected at large by the voters of Ohio. Every two years, two of the associate justice seats are up for election. For one of those three elections in a cycle, the chief justice's seat is up for election. A person need not be a judge or even a lawyer to run for a seat on the court, although almost all are. There is an age limit, however: One may not run for a seat on the court if one is more than 70 years of age. This limit often forces the retirement of long-time justices. Justice Francis E. Sweeney Sr. was barred by this rule from running for re-election in 2004.

Officially, these elections are non-partisan. However, in practical terms, all this means is that party designations for the candidates are left off the ballot and justices are restricted in making public political statements. Major and minor parties all nominate candidates for the court in their primary elections. The vast majority of justices have been nominated by the two major parties in Ohio, Democratic or Republican. Many of the individuals who have contested Supreme Court seats have also contested for other political offices, both state and federal.

Although Republicans have held a majority on the court since 1989, moderate/liberal Republicans Andrew Douglas and Paul Pfeifer often allied themselves with the Democratic minority (Francis E. Sweeney Sr. and Alice Robie Resnick) in order to overturn laws adopted by the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly. In particular, this majority of the court declared unconstitutional the state's scheme for funding public schools based on local property taxes (the DeRolph case). Since then, however, the court has been unwilling or unable to enforce the DeRolph decision.

The court also struck down a law that barred injured workers from seeking both workers compensation and civil damages. In 1999, the court overturned a law that would have limited awards in tort lawsuits, ruling that it was an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers for the Ohio General Assembly (the state legislature) to try to limit the Supreme Court's authority over court procedure (State ex rel. Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers v. Sheward, 86 Ohio St. 3d 451, 715 N.E.2d 1062 (Ohio 1999)). Each time the court overturned such a law, it was met with howls of protest and derision from the legislature, with calls for impeachment and threats to the salaries of the justices. This era ended with Douglas's retirement in 2001 and his replacement by former lieutenant governor Maureen O'Connor, who joined fellow Republicans in swinging the court in the other direction.

From January to May 2003, for the first time since the court's creation, the female justices outnumbered the male justices. This historic female majority comprised Republicans Deborah L. Cook, Maureen O'Connor, Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, and Democrat Alice Robie Resnick. This majority ended when Cook resigned from the court to accept an appointment to the federal bench. The other three women continued to serve on the court. Beginning on January 1, 2005, female justices again were in the majority with the commencement of her first term by Republican Justice Judith Ann Lanziger (replacing retiring Justice Francis E. Sweeney Sr.).